, 1887-08-27
AN EvANEscENT PEOPLE.
Conservatism at a Discount In America
How Men and Times Change.

Conservatism at a Discount In America
How Men and Times Change.
Conservatism is at a large discount in
this country, and l think that is the
reason we are 50 hard to please, as the
atrical managers will testify. One year
it is all comedy and farce, and we roar
at our tavorite actor going in and out of
doors, delivering notes to the wrong par
ties and hiding under lounges, and the
next year we decline to indulge in more
than a weary smile, and prefer to shud-
der at Wilson Barrett as Claudian. Then
there comes an era of comic opera, and
we sit open mouthed listening to jingles
which the very next season we vote
idiotic.
Now, it can't be, you know, that a
thing can be good and bad. On the very
face of it. it must be evident that Pima
fore for example, is just as musical
and witty in 1887 as il was ten years ngo.
The change from good to bad must be
due TO the fluctuating quality of our al
Iced minds. and it becomes us to inquire
into the cause. No such state of affairs
exists in any country outside of our own.
In Italy the opera hourishes year after
year, and the man who votes it a deuced
bore is guilty of high treason. In Ger
many there is no such thing as a ''revi-
val of Wagner, because he is always
with them. and in France the dear, de-
lightful, naughty comedies have been
played from time i~mmemorial. The
CuustanCy with which the Dutch stick to
the quaint Kirmis5 is proverbial, and
only equaled by the astonishing love Of
the Russian for his monthly fair.
We are constant in nothing, not even
in drinks. Absurd as it may appear,
there is n fashion in beverages, indie
pendent of the seasons. The high col
Jared youth toy with brandy one year
and get fuddled on gin the next. One
winter everybody sips run punch and
the e day they take their whisky
plain. SO in smoking. 1t used to be a
cigar, then came the deadly cigarette,
and now pipes are the correct thing. l
annot bring myse2 to believe that your
true pipe smoker would ever touch a
cigarette, except in anger. Nor do l be-
lieve that he would smoke a pipe on the
public pave. A pipe is synonymous with
privacy, and the sacred rites are not for
profane eyes.
Let us consider jokes and funny say
ings. What can sound more inane than
''Shoo fly, don't bodder met Positively
nouaeating; yet we all used to grin, gig
gle and roar about twenty years ago over
tie saying. Further along, to say
Shoot the hat would convulse every
body within hearing. We have it from
English authorities that Walker was
once conducive to fun in the foggy
island. but how can we point the finger
Of scoru while we smile at "Ah there
and ..Rats.'' Able statisticians have
computed hat the mere cost of print
ing the word chestnut" in Che columns
Of reputable newspapers amounted to a
million dollars. A brief six months after
it was the epitome of pungent wit, and
now a person is abhorred as an unclean
thing who gives it vent, and its use is
confined exclusively to English news
papers which have Just discovered it.
Not that this foolery is without its uses.
Many a man has confuted a philosopher
with ''chestnutsl" and disarmed a critic
with ''ratsl'' Rejoinder is impossible to
such an exclamation, except it takes the
form of a olinched fist. But what l want
to know is where the fun goes, and why
''rats!' isn't just as good q rejoinder this
year as it was the last. 1t isn't as if we
were going through a process of evolution
and mounting upward to u point where we
would discard this tomfoolery and talk
like Boston people, because one senseless
gag" is promptly succeeded by another
equally senseless. The good old express
sive anathemas will always hold their
ground, but what man can predict the
gag which will set the table in u roar on
or about the first of next September?
Will it be sharp and sententious, like
rats, - or will it be long and argumonta-
tive, like What are you giving us, sayT"
Will it be productive of fun or a fight?
Will it live forever or die next year?